Thanks!!

The last few weeks have been tough for me. My heel has been healing slowly, and my running has been severely limited.  That has made the two runs with Runningprofs extra special.  In Boston, the run with Spencer along the Charles was great fun, except for the running part, which hurt.  Yesterday's run with Max and Becky was a huge confidence builder.  It was the first run at my usual training pace in over a month.  I certainly noticed a decline in conditioning, and my left heel is still not 100%, but Max, Becky and her friend C__, were patient with me, and the longer we ran, the better I felt.  The weather was perfect, the surface forgiving, and the conversation excellent!  I always love runs where the conversations rotate from person to person as you go.  Anyway, no post would be complete without a picture, so here's Max, at the end, in front of the hotel.  Becky and C___ peeled off before I could get my phone out.

Third runningprofs run in 9 days

Of all the great things blogging about running should be credited with, keeping alive the interest in getting together and actually running must be top of the list.  Under that analysis, the last several days may be one of the best stretches in the blog's existence.  Ted and Spencer ran together in Boston on May 31.  Max and Spencer ran in DC on June 7.  And on June 8, Ted, I, friend-of-the-blog (and perhaps future contributor?) Becky, and Becky's regular running partner met in Bethesda Maryland for a great run on the soft dirt of the Georgetown Branch Trail heading east across the top of the District.

Ted says in the comments that we slowed down for him, but there was more than one stretch when Ted was the one needing to be slowed down.  Fun for all, I think, and just enough work to let me go nuts at brunch later that morning.

Lawyers 10K

The big early-June 10K around here is the Lawyers Have Heart 10K, run every year on the first or second weekend of June.  I ran it once before in 2010 and I ran it this morning with P__.  This race was not on my calendar, but I got roped into fleshing out an FTC team.

The Lawyers 10K starts on Water Street in Georgetown under the Whitehurst Freeway.  Just after the start the course climbs to K Street, does a u-turn, and continues climbing to Whitehurst.  It follows that road to its end at M Street and continues out Canal Road to the turn-around at the 5K point.  The course then retraces itself with a downhill finish back to Water Street.  It is a deceptively challenging course -- generally flat, but the first hill is hard and there are rolling hills and false flats just when the running is hard.

One note about the start:  I'm not one for gender-bashing, but I couldn't help noticing the men elbowing their way to the front of the start pack.  Meanwhile, Claire Hallisey, a member of the British Olympic marathon team in 2012 Olympics who lives in the DC area, quietly stood to the side in the corral, ultimately lining up three or four rows from the front.  Her 34:34 finish was first among women and 15th overall.  I envy such restrained excellence.

I hate 10Ks.  I hate every race shorter than 10 miles, but the 10K holds a special spot in whatever bodily organ is best associated with hate.  (Spleen?)  Like a 5K or 8K, the 10K distance is too short to pace well.  Unlike those shorter distances, the 10K distance takes long enough to really hurt.  The dead zone between mile 4 and mile 5 is like compressing the last 6.2 miles of a marathon into a one-mile stretch.

After the race I snacked on free Larabar brand "Uber" salted nut bars.  I made it home and found myself sick like at fraternity initiation, later learning that the bars are made with macadamia nuts, my one life-long food allergy.  Tough day all around.  I hope tomorrow's run with Ted goes better!

Run with Spencer

This time I made it to the right place at the right time and Spencer and I braved the threatened rain to head out for an afternoon run in DC.  We left the north exit to the DuPont metro at 3 pm sharp, rolling west to join Massachusetts Avenue and then passing embassies, think-tanks, places of worship, and ultimately Joe Biden's house before turning right at 36th Street by the Greek Orthodox temple.  I had forgotten just how much of a hill that stretch of Massachusetts is; I'll take the risk speaking for both of us in saying "ohmygoodness."

We headed back east on Garfield, tracing the route of Spencer's run from a few weeks back, past rows of what I believe are the most beautiful "normal" homes in DC, and joined Connecticut Avenue right near the Marriott of AALS recruiting conference fame.  (Insert involuntary shudder here.)

Just down the street we dropped into Rock Creek Park to join one of my top 5 favorite public resources in DC -- the Rock Creek Parkway bike trail -- and headed back uptown for a short while through the zoo and back, nearly reaching the Porter Street exit from Rock Creek.  Then it was gradual downhill along the bike trail to exit at P Street and to head back east into DuPont Circle.  Spencer graciously sprung for a post-run soda.

Seven miles and just over an hour of great running and conversation.  And the rain held off for us!

Ice

So, after running with Spencer last week, I limped around for a few days, and despaired.  Monday and Tuesday, I cycled.  Both days, I tried a new therapy suggested by a therapist -- a contrast bath.  The concept is 1 minute in an ice bath, followed by one minute in warm water.  It is torture!!  It also seemed to work, knocking down the obvious inflammation, and eliminating pain, except when I really worked at it.  So I ran again today.  This time with C.  I took it easy, with a very slow run across the Brooklyn Bridge.  The day was glorious.  The running was, labored.   Because I was going so slowly, there was time to take pictures.  These came out pretty well.

The heel is sore again, but no worse than after the run with Spencer.  Hopefully ice therapy, etc., will keep it on the mend. 

Some Future Posts I intend to eventually write

1) Ten years ago Cubs were ahead of the Miami Marlins and 5 outs away from going to their first World Series.  They obviously didn't make it.  It was probably my fault.  Will explain why.

2) Why we are really going to Iceland this summer.

3) Why the Red Wedding tv scene shouldn't have been that shocking on Game on Thrones.

4) Was the only time the four of us actually ran together Dublin antitrust marathon?

5) How will I keep up with Max tomorrow if he is healthy and uninjured?

6) What my daughter actually learned from Senate page school.  And does Parliament have anything similar she can do?  (Phil, this one is for you)

7) Its down to Portland Oregon and Newport Rhode Island for my 2013 marathon.  Discuss.Back up remains Cal Int'l in December or local burbs.

8) My pre and post-marathon meals.

9) Why I am angry at myself for being talked into a pair of expensive Adidas memory foam running shoes.

10) For trashy tv, why I dislike Red Dwarf, am so-so about the Walking Dead, and really want to watch In the Flesh on BBC America.

11) My growing fondness for Chris Christie (as long as he stays in New Jersey).

600K

While co-bloggers were conferring in Boston and consulting in Ethiopia, I just spent the rare weekend doing precisely nothing that could be called work.  I woke at 2 am Saturday and drove to Frederick, Maryland.  At 4 I and 22 others launched by bicycle from a highway motel, winding through downtown Frederick on the way to the Maryland countryside.  After a long loop I made it back to Frederick at 8:45 pm.  A little chit-chat, 4 1/2 hours of not-very-restful sleep, and an odd breakfast of three bowls of Hormel chili later, I launched (this time alone) at 2:45 am for a second loop, returning to Frederick at 1:45 pm.

Taken together we had four Potomac River crossings on three different bridges and we rode through four states (Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland).  These rides encounter dozens of sleepy burgs that are too small to boast a stoplight, a proper grocery, or even a McDonalds franchise.  (They all have a road named after a church, however. "Sam Church Road."  "Jones Church Road."  "First Church Road."  Might one responsibly conclude that the dying of rural America is linked to an overpopulation of churches?)

Many say of these rides that the best part is the night-riding.  I'm frequently a skeptic of that claim because the magic of night-riding is easily offset by the fear of drunks and the necessarily slower pace.  The dark and semi-dark hours before 6 am were a treat this time -- partly because the air was cool and partly because I was thankfully alert enough actually to enjoy them.